ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of our current understanding of the syntactic typologies of relativization, gained from studies on typologically diverse spoken languages, and applies this knowledge to sign languages, based on the patterns reported in the available studies on the syntax of RCs in sign languages. The last relativization strategy we address, correlative clauses, differs from both headed RCs and FRs in three main respects: the phonological realization of the head, the structural relation between the main clause and the RC, and the syntactic category of the (cor)relative clause. As for, both clauses contain a co-referent DP constituent; while the relative DP is interpreted as indefinite, matrix DP has a definite interpretation. Restrictive relative clauses (RRCs) restrict the class of entities denoted by the head by identifying it as the specific referent of which the RC predicates something. Semantically, RRCs are sets intersecting with the set denoted by the head, thus establishing the restriction of the main clause determiner.
